A Conversation With L.A. Eco-Artist Maru Garcia

“Works in Progress” highlights artists across a range of disciplines whose work deals with ecological themes. Considering the particular role that artists play in the climate movement, this column will share their voices and provide a glimpse behind the curtain into their creative processes and experiences. Through a combination of Q&As and narrative pieces, this column will discuss the relationship between the natural world, advocacy, and the art itself.

Maru Garcia is an L.A.-based eco-artist whose multimedia work and performance art incorporates chemistry and biotechnology to create art that considers environmental issues — and, in some cases, provides solutions as well. 

Garcia is currently a Getty Foundation grant recipient and an associate research scientist in mineral sciences at the Natural History Museum in downtown L.A. She is currently leading a project that combines community science and art and aims to help remediate lead contamination in people’s backyards. 

At the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition in 2024, Garcia will present art based on the project’s findings: mosaics made of small pellets of soil and sculptures made of zeolites, the mineral being tested as a conduit of remediation.

The artist spoke with Bluedot Living contributor Lily Olsen about that project, her scientific background, and her inspiration.

Lily Olsen: You have a multidisciplinary background, which appears in your art. Could you tell me more about this? 

Maru Garcia: I try to bring together my disciplines. I have my background in the sciences — I studied chemistry and biotechnology. And then I pursued a path to the arts. So integrating these for topics related to the environment is my main focus. 

LO: Could you tell me a bit about your materials and methodology?

MG: I usually use a lot of tools that come from the sciences. Process itself is important for me; it's not just about the end product. Lately, I’ve been working a lot on projects that are related to the community. So I’m working right now on a project called “Prospering Backyards” that is completely community-based. It’s also interdisciplinary. It combines art and science, but it’s also very related to environmental justice, to how we can empower people through community science.

LO: And what is “Prospering Backyards”?

MG: This project is taking place in areas of  Los Angeles where the soil was contaminated by lead. There was a company that used to recycle batteries, and the lead was deposited into the ground. More than 10,000 properties were affected, and there are families living there, mostly from the Latino communities. Through researching this topic I was able to see how lead contamination is affecting people’s health, people’s lives, and people’s relationship to their gardens, their backyards, and the soil.

We started with a collaboration with a gallery in Boyle Heights called Self Help Graphics & Art. And this is also a collaboration with the Natural History Museum. We are all working together with other community organizations, with community members, and with volunteers. Our main objective is to develop a method for lead remediation in order to reduce lead exposure in people’s backyards. 

It’s also something that started as an art project because it was a proposal we presented for the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative, so I will present a component of the project in galleries. 

LO: What phase is the project in now?

MG: Right now we are in this research phase, and we’re inviting community members to participate with us as community scientists. Last year, we went with volunteers to take samples from people’s backyards, and we were able to map where the contamination is. Based on those samples, we invited people in areas with the highest lead levels to participate as community scientists. 

We’ll be testing a series of treatments that we can apply directly to soil in each of the 15 community scientists’ houses. That’s the science part. Each of them has their sampling schedule, and they take notes of what is happening in their backyards. The idea is at the end of the program, we’ll see if this treatment works. And if it does, we’ll be able to share this information with the public.

LO: What have you learned about the experiences of these community scientists living with lead exposure? 

MG: Some of them have a family member with some kind of sickness, or cancer due to the lead exposure. Some of them have children, and they used to allow their children to go and play in the soil. They regret it, but they didn’t know there was contamination. They were just allowing their children to do what a normal child would do. But at the same time, I’ve seen a lot of hope. And I feel the hope comes from people seeing that they’re doing something. It’s from action. 

LO: What outcomes have you seen from involving the community in your work?

MG: I feel that it’s basically the dialogue and also the collaboration itself. What I am enjoying a lot in this process is that it’s not just me. It’s gratifying to see people  engaged with the project, but also bringing their own ideas. It’s a little different from my previous work, which has been more studio-based. 

LO: What inspired you to become an eco-artist, and specifically to create the sorts of work that you're making?

MG: I was always curious about the natural world and about the problems I saw in my own city. I’m from Puebla, Mexico. And there were certain things I noticed when I was little. For example, I’d wonder, “Why is the river gray? Why can’t I play there?” I always felt compelled to do something, even when I was little.

And I always loved playing in the yard. We had a small yard, and my mom had a lot of plants. I would look at the insects and start developing a relationship with the plants and creatures. That’s why “Prospering Backyards” is very personal for me: It’s about having the opportunity to play in your own backyard. 

LO: Is there a specific category of ecological themes that you try to cover in your work?

MG: It’s a broad range. I started with the idea of our relationship with the rest of the natural world: How can we become closer? How can we care better if we feel connected? 

LO: Could you speak to the idea of hope in your work?

MG: Hope comes from knowing that the systems that we are embedded in have the capacity to regenerate. But besides that, hope also comes from our own capacity for regeneration and remediation. So I am definitely trying to avoid this narrative of humans as pests, things that should be eradicated in order for the rest of nature to flourish. We’re part of the natural world; we should claim our capacities for doing this regenerative work. 

LO: I'm also curious about your performance art. How does it lend itself to understanding the environment and capturing environmental themes?

MG: In “Vivarium,” I asked myself what it would be like if I was in an encapsulated space. This performance took place at the beach. I brought this acrylic dome, and I put myself inside, and it was a meditative time. I would look around and see the water, feel the sun, and feel the air that was in this bubble. It was about exploring how it felt to be there. But at the same time it was about this bubble in which we live: the planet. What does it mean for us to have more respect for and acknowledge the other organisms that are here?

LO: And what did you discover during that time?
MG: That the world is so beautiful that we have to pause. So much of the time, we're just running everywhere, and we don’t get to explore those moments of interaction and observation.